Adele Parks, Still Thinking of You

Still Thinking of You

Adele Parks

Downtown, December 2006, $14.00

ISBN: 0743496507

Thirtyish Tash and Rich are in love. They talk about a future together, agree to marry and plan to elope to a French ski resort. They look forward to inviting their friends, many of them Rich has known and partied with for years, to celebrate their marriage.

At first Rich's friends seem nice to Tash, but soon they begin to act childish, selfish and boorish. Adding to her discomfit is that instead of asking his buddies to cool it, Rich joins them. Tash begins to have doubts that loving Rich will prove enough, as he disappoints her with his hedonistic attitude, shared by his increasingly nasty towards her friends. Finally, the "She" arrives; the one that enthralled Rich when they were lovers in college. Will he go off with her during what was supposed to be his honeymoon, or will he realize what he is about to lose for a few days of recapturing his early twenties?

Except for Tash, the rest of the cast is selfish, trying to hang on to or recapturing their youth as time moves on. Neither Rich nor his friends seem particular nice, as they are purposely stereotyped to be the transition decade from youthful exuberance and excess to middle age reason-ability. Though difficult to read because of the attitudes of the players, Adele parks provides a fascinating look at aging, the final frontier.